More than 50% of the maize grain crop produced in the USA is used for animal feed animal (Perry (1988) Corn and Corn Improvement, eds. Sprague and Dudley (Madison, Wis.), pp. 941-963). Maize grain with elevated oil concentration has a higher caloric content compared with standard maize grain and is advantageous as a food source for animals. Feeding high-oil maize grain instead of maize grain with standard levels of oil concentration to swine and poultry has resulted in accelerated weight gain (Han et al. (1987) J. Poult. Sci. 66:103-111 and Gross et al. (1992) Proc. of the 47th Ann. Corn and Sorghum Res. Conference, pp. 82-92). Thus, the development of high-oil germplasm is an objective of some maize breeding programs.
Molecular marker technology has enabled the association of DNA markers with important agronomic traits such as yield, plant height, disease resistance, etc. Methods and compositions that improve the oil content of plants and also provide novel molecular markers that allow for efficient breeding methods to identify high-oil plants are needed in the art.